An American journalist has been found guilty of helping hacktivist group Anonymous deface the website of the Los Angeles Times.
Prosecutors
said Matthew Keys, 28, provided the hackers a password to access
systems belonging to Tribune Co, the newspaper's parent company.
Prosecutors said Keys used online chat channels to encourage the hacktivists.
Sentencing will take place in January, but he is not expected to receive the maximum possible sentence of 25 years.
A spokesman for the US Justice Department told Reuters the sentence would likely be less than five years.
Keys' lawyer said he planned to appeal against the verdict.
Keys
was charged with conspiracy to cause damage to a protected computer,
transmission of malicious code, and attempted transmission of malicious
code. He was found guilty on all three counts.
"The mere fact that
they brought this case against a journalist whose only crime was
committing an act of journalism is beyond belief and expectation," Keys
said after hearing the verdict.
"Time and time again, this Justice
Department has targeted reporters and their sources to advance their
own investigations and agendas."
Court documents said the
incidents took place in December 2010, shortly after Keys had lost his
job at California-based TV station Fox 40 KTXL, also owned by Tribune
Co.
Keys went on to work for Reuters as the agency's social media editor, but was let go after he was charged in 2012.
'Elect Chippy 1337'
Prosecutors said Keys' actions were "anonymous revenge".
Under
the online pseudonym AESCracked, Keys was said to have shared log-in
details for the LA Times' content management system - CMS - the software
used to enter content, such as articles or pictures, to be published on
the newspaper's website.
With this information, an unidentified
Anonymous member using the name "sharpie" is said to have edited a story
on the LA Times site.
A headline was altered to read: "Pressure builds in House to elect CHIPPY 1337".
Within the article, the opening paragraph was also changed to include the phrase "reluctant House Democrats told to SUCK IT UP".
The defacement was "live" on the LA Times site for about an hour, the defence said.
Tribune Co said it cost at least $5,000 to fix and
investigate the incident which, as Vice's technology site Motherboard
points out, is the threshold amount for being able to bring charges
under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
A spokesman for Tribune
Co, Gary Weitman, said: "We are pleased that the justice system worked.
We will let today's verdict speak for itself."
Media sites targeted
Anonymous,
a loosely organised group of mostly low-level hackers, often targeted
mainstream media websites and social media profiles.
One splinter
group Lulzsec took credit for posting a story to The Sun's website
stating that its owner, Rupert Murdoch, had committed suicide.
In
another instance, on the website for US broadcaster PBS, a story was
posted saying that rapper Tupac Shakur, who was shot and killed in 1996,
was in fact alive and living in New Zealand.
Key members of
Lulzsec were arrested after hacker-turned-informant Hector Xavier
Monsegur - known as Sabu - aided police in building a case against the
suspected hackers.
Following his cooperation, Monsegur was given a reduced sentence of one year under supervision.
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC
